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Mumbai Photog: 'I Only Wish I Had a Gun'

Police wouldn't shoot at gunmen, he says

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 30, 2008 9:15 AM CST

(Newser) – The photographer who took pictures of Mumbai terrorists seen worldwide snapped his train-station shots as armed police stood by, he told the Belfast Telegraph. “At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back,” he said. Sebastian D’Souza shot the images from a train car after hearing gunfire.

“They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved,” D’Souza said of the terrorists. "I briefly had time to take a couple of frames. I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera.” The pair of gunmen “looked like backpackers, not terrorists,” he said. But they “clearly knew how to use their rifles.”

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In this Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008, photo by Sebastian D'Souza, a gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India. (AP Photo/Mumbai Mirror)

In this Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008, file photo, injured commuters and dead bodies lie at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, in this photo by Sebastian D'Souza. (AP Photo/Mumbai Mirror)

Armed gunmen are seen moving at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008, in this photo by Sebastian D'Souza. (AP Photo/Mumbai Mirror)

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What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera. - Sebastian D'Souza, photographer

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Mumbai Photog: 'I Only Wish I Had a Gun'